Shloka 37
Śiva-stavarāja: Upamanyu’s Preface and Initiation of the Śarva-Nāma Enumeration
Anuśāsana-parva 17
सर्वकर्मा स्वयम्भूत आदिरादिकरो निधि: । सहस्राक्षो विशालाक्ष: सोमो नक्षत्रसाधक:
sarvakarmā svayambhūta ādir ādikaro nidhiḥ | sahasrākṣo viśālākṣaḥ somo nakṣatrasādhakaḥ ||
वायुरुवाच— स सर्वकर्मा स्वयम्भूर्नित्यसिद्धोऽनादिरादिः। आदिकरः स निधिरक्षय ऐश्वर्यसञ्चयः। स सहस्राक्षो विशालाक्षः सोमः; नक्षत्राणां धारकः नियन्ता च॥
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches reverent recognition of the divine as the all-pervading governor of action and cosmic order—self-existent, originative, all-seeing, and sustaining the rhythms of time and the heavens (moon and stars). Ethically, it frames dharma as alignment with a stable, beneficent universal order upheld by the divine.
Vāyu is delivering a hymn of praise, listing epithets that describe the deity’s cosmic functions—creation/origination, inexhaustible power, omniscient vision, and celestial regulation through Soma and the nakṣatras—within the Anuśāsana Parva’s broader didactic setting.